London Christmas Lights Walk

You can’t have it all your own way. Wednesday evening I joined the end of a very long queue outside St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield that stretched all the way down Cloth Fair, hoping to see the Dickens Christmas Carol performance. A nice lady told us that around 150 people were queuing for just two seats and it might be best to give up rather than wait in the rain.
However, on Sunday I did a fantastic walk with my sister exploring the Central London Christmas lights. We started at the Tudor Middle Temple Hall with its wonderful display of Christmas trees outside the 16th century hall, which I think is the most Christmassy place in the whole of London. And there wasn’t a soul around. We strolled past Temple Church with its solitary tree then moved on to Somerset House Ice Rink with the whole scene looking quite majestic and vaguely 19th Century Imperial. We stood on the piazza at Aldwych and admired the lights of the Strand, before heading up to the beautiful chaos of Covent Garden where street performers terrified children beneath enormous decorative bells. Seven Dials was a suspended flying carpet of illuminations.

London Christmas Lights at Middle Temple Hall
London Christmas Lights at Seven Dials in Covent Garden

Henry Pordes bookshop in Charing Cross Road won the award for charm over bombast. Leicester Square was surprising beguiling, Regent Street St James’s had a subtle enchantment. We marvelled at the incredible display at Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly and were intoxicated by the gated glimpse of Burlington Arcade and Piccadilly Arcade. The final leg of our Christmas Lights tour took us along Old Bond Street where Cartier wowed the crowds, New Bond Street with Dior. We had to take a rest in the Masons Arms where a couple of pints reset our concept of reality. Finally we did the classics – Regent Street, and ending appropriately on Oxford Street.

The Hidden Passages of St James’s

Our walk today takes into the secret world of St James’s with its many passages, courtyards and cellars. We’re guided by a route described in Secret London by Andrew Duncan which starts at Piccadilly Circus and goes along Piccadilly. We then walk through the Wren Church of St James’s Piccadilly to Jermyn Street and follow this into Bennet Street and then down a set of steps into Park Place and the home of the Royal Over Seas League. From here we find Blue Ball Yard and then Spencer House in St James’s Place and another secret passage that leads into Green Park. From here a passageway takes us into Cleveland Row and St James’s Palace. Moving towards Pall Mall we explore the wonderful Picking Place, Crown Passage, Angel Passage and King Street before returning to Jermyn Street and then back to Piccadilly Circus.

Tanks, Transit Vans and mounted guards on the Strand

I’d just walked onto The Strand from Waterloo Bridge with Gerry King after recording a radio show for Resonance fm when we noticed something was afoot. No traffic was moving westwards. None. I was about to pontificate on how Canterbury Pilgrims used to stop and water their horses here at a stone trough when we heard the clatter of horses hooves on the road and a procession of mounted guardsmen rode past. That is an odd sight in 21st Century London. Odder still was that they were followed by soldiers in white transit vans one of which was sitting in the middle of the front seat holding a gleaming silver sword.

The only explanation I can find for this unscheduled show of 18th Century military might (and out-of-place transit vans) is that US President Barack Obama is visiting London on Friday and this somehow might impress him, as if we were a colonial backwater preparing for the visit of imperial functionary. Oh god, that does sound too accurate doesn’t it. Anyway the guards looked nice in their shiny armour and nice hats.